SASO Referees (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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sportsanime2015-06-27 09:18 pm
referees) wrote in sportsanime2015-06-27 09:18 pm
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Bonus Round 3: FSTs
Bonus Round 3: FSTs
This round is CLOSED. Late fills can be posted, but they won't receive points.
We're halfway through all the bonus rounds now. If you're like us, every love song on the radio seems to apply to your OTP. In this round we'd like you to serenade us with some of your top picks!
This round ends at 7PM on July 11 EDT. Countdown Timer.
RULES
- Submit prompts in the form of a short playlist (3-6 songs) and a ship from any of our nominated fandoms. Submit only the track listing and a link to where they can be listened to; the idea is for others to interpret what you present. You may also link to lyrics if you would like.
- Your prompt MUST include some kind of relationship. (This is not the sports anime gen olympics.) Platonic relationships are indicated by an "&" between the names (e.g., Riko & Momoi & Alex). Non-platonic relationships use "/" (e.g., Riko/Momoi/Alex). Please don't say "Any pairing," either.
- Create content based on the playlists of others! Fill prompts by leaving a responding comment to the prompt with your newly-created work.
- Fills may be in any form you choose (except for another FST of course) as long as they are inspired by/fit the mood of the soundtrack they are filling for.
- Remember to follow the general bonus round rules, outlined here.
- You cannot fill your teammates' prompts or your own prompts.
FORMAT
Bonus round shenanigans all happen in the comments below. Brand-new works only, please.Required Work Minimums:
- 400 words (prose)
- 400px by 400px (art)
- 14 lines (poetry)
Format your comment in one of the following ways:
| If PROMPTING: | If FILLING: | If FILLING as a TEAM GRANDSTAND participant: |
PROMPT: TEAM [YOUR SHIP]
|
FILL: TEAM [YOUR SHIP], [RATING]
|
FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, [RATING]
|
Posts not using this format will be understood to be unofficial discussion posts, regardless of what they contain. They, like all comments in this community, are subject to the code of conduct.
SCORING
These numbers apply to your team as a whole, not each individual teammate. Make as many prompts/fills as you want!For prompts: 5 points each (maximum of 50 prompt points per team per round)
For fills:
First 3 fills by any member of your team: 20 points each
Fills 4-10: 10 points each
Fills 11-20: 5 points each
Fills 21+: 2 points each
All scored content must be created new for this round.
Etc.
If you're hunting through the prompts looking for what to fill, a good trick is to view top-level comments only.Have a question? Check The FAQ first. If you still need help, feel free to contact the mods. Happy fanworking!
PROMPT: TEAM MANAMI SANGAKU/TOUDOU JINPACHI
Light Up the Sky - Yellowcard
Only One - Yellowcard
Ocean Avenue - Yellowcard
Awakening - Yellowcard
yellowcard is my favourite band ever if you love them too bless u
Re: PROMPT: TEAM MANAMI SANGAKU/TOUDOU JINPACHI
YELLOW CARD
HOW DID YOU MAKE THIS HURT MORE THAN MY PAIN PROMPT, O W
Re: PROMPT: TEAM MANAMI SANGAKU/TOUDOU JINPACHI
Re: PROMPT: TEAM MANAMI SANGAKU/TOUDOU JINPACHI
Ocean Avenue was like...my go-to high school album hahaha ;___;
I AM CONSIDERING FILLING THIS SO MUCH...I only need to hydrate myself in preparation for the tears while writing
Re: PROMPT: TEAM MANAMI SANGAKU/TOUDOU JINPACHI
ANYWAY if you decide to fill it I would be really happy ヽ(；▽；)ノ (and sad, but I love sad www) HYDRATE WELL
FILL: TEAM AOYAGI HAJIME/TESHIMA JUNTA, PG
I'm sorry, this hurt to write
The last thing that Arakita expected to happen during his high school years was that he would fall in love.
The idea was too cliche and too dramatic for his liking, despite having to hear about it whenever he was around his younger sisters.
“Do you have a giiiirlfriend yet~?” They would ask this every time he was home, just as he stepped in the door. And every time he would respond with a growl or a threat to burn all their manga if they asked again. He didn’t even have friends, so how was he supposed to have a girlfriend?
But...then came Fuku-chan.
-
Arakita owed his life to Fukutomi Juichi. Not only did he save Arakita from the endless spiral of destruction his life was in, but Fukutomi gave him purpose. He gave him a reason to push himself to his own limits and beyond; a reason to break the idea that he was now worthless.
Fukutomi had seen back then just how broken Arakita was, that day on the hill when they met. And if there was one thing that Fukutomi was good at, it was fixing people. But Arakita didn’t know it at first. He simply thought that Fukutomi Juichi was some jerk that had fun messing around with a sorry-case like him.
From the beginning, Arakita was critical of Fukutomi. He didn’t trust this “strong” boy and all his fancy words about cycling. And because of this, Arakita found himself watching Fukutomi every moment he could.
He would notice every time he came into the club room to check if Arakita was on the rollers. He kept count of the times that he walked into the club house to see Fukutomi doing maintence on the old Bianchi instead of his newer one. All the times that Fukutomi would accompany him on a ride just to see how his progress was. How he started inviting Arakita to eat together with Shinkai and Toudou.
Everything that Fukutomi did for Arakita’s benefit started to pile up inside his head, until Arakita didn’t know what to do with it anymore. No matter how hard or far he rode, just the thought of Fukutomi made his heart race and his body push harder. It made no sense to him. Why him? Why would Fukutomi do all of these things for him?
And why did he care so much that Fukutomi did these things for him?
More than once, Arakita caught himself smiling without a reason at Fukutomi. Sometimes it happened while they were practicing on the rollers and sometimes it happened when they were eating together. Shinkai mentioned it to him in passing once, the way that his smile and eyes softened when he saw Fukutomi.
“It’s really cute, Yasutomo.” He said, unwrapping another gross power bar. “You remind me of a puppy.”
That conversation ended with Shinkai dodging a punch and Arakita storming away with a red face.
But the clues were there, and they were as bright as the sun itself. However, none of it made sense until the first race that they won together.
The feeling Arakita got after seeing Fukutomi cross the goal first because of his assist made him feel happier than any baseball game he’d won in the past. But the moment that Fukutomi grabbed his shoulder and looked at him with such proud eyes, that was when it hit Arakita.
That’s when he knew that he was in love with Fukutomi Juichi.
-
But, Arakita never told him.
No, he kept quiet and continued to follow Fukutomi’s lead. They were a team and by then, Fukutomi had a score to settle with the Sohoku captain. As much as he wanted to be selfish, as much as he wanted to say “Hey, Fuku-chan, look at me. Only look at me, okay?” just like he used to the years before, he held back. He supressed those feelings.
Instead, Arakita pulled his hardest for Fukutomi. He absorbed every tiny bit of praise that he got, keeping it safe in his mind until he was hidden under the covers of his bed at night. It was so easy to imagine kissing Fukutomi, grabbing that stone face that Arakita had studied and observed for almost three years and feeling it finally relax into something soft and warm.
How many times had he imagined and dreamed of being someone that could take the burden off Fukutomi’s shoulders? How many times had he wished that he could do for Fukutomi what Fukutomi did for him-- And not just because he wanted to, but because he loved him.
It was that love that lead him through the Inter-High and everything beyond that. And while Hakogaku didn’t win the Inter-High, Arakita was secretly glad. He was glad that it hadn’t been Fukutomi fighting at the end because he wasn’t there either. If Arakita could have had it his way, if he hadn’t had to deal with the punks from Hiroshima, if, If, IF
His life was filled with too many ifs.
And when Fukutomi and Shinkai announced their acceptances to Meisou the same day that Arakita got his from Yonan, he knew that it was going to continue to be filled with even more.
-
The day before graduation, he decided that enough was enough. He had to tell Fukutomi. Everything. He had it all written down on a piece of paper, the last from his old English notebook that now lay crumbled at his feet. There was no way that he was going to chicken out. He got up from his desk, glanced in the mirror to see if his hair looked...decent or something, and opened his door.
“Arakita.”
Standing right outside the door was Fukutomi, hand raised like he was going to knock.
“Fuku-chan!? What’re you- Ah, did you need something?”
All the bravado that Arakita had built up disappeared at the sight of Fukutomi dressed down in sweats and a t-shirt. It made him look so much more approachable, so much more…real.
“I wanted to talk to you, Arakita. Can I come in?”
Arakita stepped to the side, completely forgetting about the state of his room until Fukutomi kicked a few of the paper balls.
“Writing a love letter?” He asked, reaching down for one of the balls until Arakita finally snapped out of it and grabbed it from his hand.
“It’s none of your business!!” He kicked the rest of the paper away from Fukutomi, terrified of him finding out like that, and directed him to sit on Arakita’s bed. The sight of Fukutomi on his bed made him happy that he only had one more night of sleeping in it. Arakita wouldn’t survive more than that.
“So...what did you want to talk about?” he asked, sitting down on his desk chair backwards, leaning his head on his hands.
“Ah, well.” Fukutomi hesitated. His hands twisted into his pants and Arakita realized this was the first time that he’d seen Fukutomi this openly nervous. Usually he could tell by the line of shoulders, the slight frown of his lips, but to see the uncertainty clear in his eyes had Arakita sitting up.
“Fuku-chan?”
“I...just wanted to say.” Fukutomi rubbed the side of his arm. “Thank you, Yasutomo. I wanted to say thank you.”
“...What?”
The words confused Arakita so much. Why was Fukutomi thanking him? Arakita had been nothing but a thorn in his side for the past three years, and then even this year, he hadn’t been able to survive long enough to let Fukutomi win the Inter-High. Arakita had done nothing to be thanked for.
“I think you’ve got it mixed up, Fuku-chan. I’m the one that should be thanking you, without you...who knows where I would be now.” The words come straight from his heart and weree the ones also written on the paper in his back pocket.
Arakita owed Fukutomi his life, his soul, his everything for taking that one chance with him three years ago. He only hoped that he could make it up over the rest of their lives with his loyalty and love...as dramatic and cliched as it was. He wouldn’t let Fukutomi ever forget how thankful he was to have him in his life.
“No, Yasutomo. You...for three years, you trusted me blindly. You gave me everything that you had and surprised me day after day with your determination and loyalty. You became my own inspiration for training and to have riden together on a team with you was an honor.”
“Fuku-chan…”
“Thank you, Yasutomo. I…” Fukutomi paused again and Arakita held his breath.
In his mind, his imagination filled in the paused sentence with two more words and the idea made his ears grow warm. There was no way this was happening.
“Yasutomo, I’m really going to miss you.” Oh. “You’ve not only become a great teammate but a good friend as well. I will miss you.” A good friend. Of course.
Arakita was glad that one of his defensive mechanisms was laughter because immediately he started laughing to stop himself from crying. Not that he would’ve willing cried in front of Fukutomi anyway.
“Oy oy, Fuku-chan~ What’s with all these sudden emotions?” He hoped that his voice didn’t sound as fake and strained as he felt. “You’re acting like we’ll never see each other again...or even race again. I’m not going to stop cycling so you better not either. Graduation isn’t the end of the world.”
Hearing his response made Fukutomi relax a little and he nodded.
“You’re right. This was silly of me to be worried.” He stood up and placed both of his hands on Arakita’s shoulders. “I just wanted to make sure you knew how thankful I was for you and how proud I am of how much you’ve grown. You’re truly amazing, Arakita Yasutomo. I’m so glad to have met you.”
Then he smiled.
Fukutomi actually smiled at Arakita. There was nothing that Arakita could do to stop the tears.
“Dammit, Fuku-chan.” He shoved him away, staring at the ceiling to blink back tears. “Your emotions are spreading, please leave before I’m like Toudou and crying over split-ends.”
He heard laughter and the sound of his door opening.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Yasutomo?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Only answer once.”
“Yes, sir”
When the door finally shut, Arakita let himself really cry. It was awful and draining and gross, but it was just was he needed.
A good friend. Did he really expect anything more than that from Fuku-chan?
After he finally calmed down, he took out his frustration on all the letters he wrote, shredding them into tiny pieces until he had no energy left. Last was the final copy, the actual letter he was going to give to Fukutomi in case he couldn’t say the words outloud.
Every tear felt so vindicating and when it was so shredded that the written words couldn’t be read, Arakita almost felt whole again. There was just one thing he had left to do.
-
The next day, after the graduation ceremony, Arakita pulled Fukutomi off to the side.
“Here, Fuku-chan.”
He dropped the button in Fukutomi’s outstretched hand, smirking as Fukutomi realized just what it was.
“I know we don’t wear gakuran but...Eh, the meaning is still the same. Some of your feelings from last night rubbed off on me so, this is my way of saying thanks, Juichi. Fuku-chan.”
He reached out and carefully closed Fukutomi’s hand around the button.
“I owe you a lot more than this but...I know you’ll take care of it. You’ve taken good care of me for these past few years after all.”
Squeezing the button, Fukutomi nodded, mouthing opening to say something but interupted by Shinkai jumping on his back.
But it was okay.
With his heart in Fukutomi’s hand, no matter if Fukutomi realized the real meaning or not, Arakita knew it would be okay. Eventually.
Re: FILL: TEAM AOYAGI HAJIME/TESHIMA JUNTA, PG